After a heart attack, the heart “wants” to sleep – scientists have come to some interesting conclusions

Scientists have discovered that the heart starts its sleep mechanisms after a heart attack.

Sleep is not just a time of rest for our body, but also an important process that affects many aspects of health, including the cardiovascular system. Modern research confirms that lack of sleep can significantly increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

Scientists from the USA and Germany conducted a series of experiments that opened a new perspective to understand the relationship between sleep and heart conditions.
According to several studies, people who do not regularly get enough sleep are at greater risk of developing various cardiovascular diseases.

Research shows that even if a person tries to compensate for lack of sleep by spending extra hours in bed on weekends, this does not reduce the negative health effects. It is important to understand that sleep quality and consistency play a key role in maintaining normal heart function.

Recent research presentedthat the heart causes a mechanism that affects sleep regulation during myocardial infarction. In tests on laboratory mice, scientists found that after a heart attack, immune cells called monocytes migrate to the brain. These cells begin to produce a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which plays an important role in inflammatory processes.

Tumor necrosis factor activates neurons in the thalamus, an area of ​​the brain responsible for regulating the level of consciousness and sleep and wakefulness processes. This leads to an increase in the need for sleep and its duration, which, in turn, promotes the healing of damaged heart tissue and a reduction in inflammatory processes.

In one experiment, scientists interrupted the sleep of experimental mice that had suffered a heart attack. The results showed an increase in sympathetic stress responses and inflammation in the heart in sleep-deprived rodents. This slowed the recovery of the animals compared to those who could sleep normally. These data highlight the importance of sleep in the care of patients with myocardial infarction.

Research in healthy people also suggests that lack of sleep can trigger stress and inflammatory responses. Subjects who slept an hour and a half less than the control group experienced significant changes in their bodies associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers. This shows that even a small reduction in sleep time can have a big impact on health.

Therefore, scientists have established: to protect the myocardium from another hypoxia, the heart launches a completely new mechanism, previously unknown, to regulate sleep. And a simple truth was also proven: to be healthy, you need to get enough sleep.

The article is for informational purposes only. Not for medical purposes. Specialist consultation is required.

Before that, cardiologist Anna Biryukova told about products that reduce the risk of heart attack.